Panorama of College Green, Dublin (1902)

1902
Silent
2m

Irish street scenes and landmarks at College Green in Edwardian Dublin.

These evocative scenes of Edwardian Dublin include views of the old houses of parliament (later home to the Bank of Ireland), and the gates of Trinity College. By 1902 the city's tram system was already electrified and this film shows a busy urban Dublin. The once-famous statue of 'King Billy' (William of Orange) on horseback can also be seen; it was later damaged by republicans and removed.

ACTUALITY. Shots taken around College Green, Dublin - including the buildings, statues, and street scenes.

Street Life

Pavements thronging, traffic pressed nose to bumper (or tail): these astonishing films show Edwardian streets buzzing with life.

'Street scenes' were a staple of early filmmaking, and Mitchell & Kenyon's are particularly stunning, revealing in sharp detail how our ancestors behaved, dressed and moved in public, as well as how their towns and cities were organised.

These streets throng with human and other traffic. Motor cars were still a rarity, but the tide of vehicles never let up: horse-drawn carts, bicycles, omnibuses and trams (some of them electrified). They may miss the sounds and smells of the city, but these extraordinary images evoke a rapidly changing society: an urbanised, increasingly mobile, consumer Britain not so very different from our own.